Streveler’s poise, intelligence, leadership qualities are what impressed Bombers coaches the most

Chris Streveler arrived at work Monday morning and was immediately called over for a conversation with Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice.

The 23-year-old rookie was informed that he’ll be the starting quarterback in the team’s CFL season opener on Thursday night against the Edmonton Eskimos.

The rest of the message in a nutshell? Go tell your parents and then get to work.

“I just texted them and then I threw my phone back in the locker and started to prepare for a practice,” Streveler said Tuesday. “I didn’t really have a lot of time. We had to get rolling, especially on a short week here. I had to make sure I’m mentally locked-in and ready to go with what we’re doing game plan wise.”

And so it happened that Streveler, about six weeks removed from signing his first pro football contract, seven months past his final college football game, is about to suit up as the Bombers starting quarterback and most important player.

It’s a position few quarterbacks have ever been in — rookies start in Week 1 about once every Halley’s Comet, give or take a few decades.

But there’s something about Streveler’s demeanour and intelligence that makes the Blue Bombers football brass believe he can handle it.

Streveler certainly seems to have the kind of mindset that many successful quarterbacks have. Take for example, that text conversation with his parents, who were back home in Illinois, on Monday.

“They were excited but they try not to get too up and down about this stuff because I try not to get too up and down about this stuff,” Streveler said. “It’s a great opportunity but there’s a still a lot of work that needs to be put in. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and they get those vibes from me as well.”

If you told anyone in the CFL a month ago that Chris Streveler would be starting games for the Bombers this season — let alone the season opener — they’d have called for psychiatric assessment. Pure rookies, straight out of college, just don’t do this.

But circumstances — Darian Durant’s retirement and the knee injury to No. 1 quarterback Matt Nichols — brought him to this point. Well, circumstances, and a darn good performance in training camp.

“What I like about what he’s done is he has processed the information very well,” LaPolice said Tuesday. “What I mean by that is, when he’s supposed to get the ball out of his hands because people are pressuring with one more than we can protect, he does. When he has to change his drop because there’s pressure and he needs to throw the ball, he does. Everything we’ve asked him to do, he’s executed at a high level. He’s completed a lot of passes, thrown deep balls well and has been able to create first downs with his legs.”

Forgive people if they were skeptical of Streveler’s potential early on in training camp. After all, the Bombers haven’t recruited a quarterback who amounted to anything in the CFL since Danny McManus back in the early 1990s.

There have been so many QBs come through town who were great college players but simply couldn’t adapt to the Canadian game and the rigours of pro football.

The striking numbers Streveler put up at the University of South Dakota — 6,081 passing yards over two seasons, 1,543 rushing yards, 54 passing TDs and 20 rushing TDs — are impressive, but those are not the reason he’s starting this week.

“He’s a very poised individual,” Bombers quarterbacks coach Buck Pierce said. “He’s got the leadership qualities that you look for in a quarterback. It’s impressive for a guy just coming out of college. You look at the quarterback group we have and he’s the guy that’s played the most football in the last year.”

Having a good training camp and performing under the bright lights in a regular season game are very different things. Streveler will need to play a smart football game, minimize the mistakes and trust in the talented group around him.

Streveler can do himself a favour by keeping things simple, sticking to the game plan and executing when he needs to.

“The message to Chris all week has been no different than Matt Nichols gets,” LaPolice said. “We make good decisions with the football, when there’s opportunities to take shots downfield, we take them and we operate our offence. He doesn’t have to operate above himself, our players don’t have to play more because we have a guy who doesn’t have a lot of starts under his belt.

“He just has to play the game we call for him and make good decisions.”

And he won’t need to text his parents this time.

They’ll be right there in the building to see it all for themselves.

You can’t just replace a player like Matt Nichols

Chris Streveler is filling in but he doesn’t believe he can ever replace Matt Nichols.

The rookie quarterback will start for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday night against the Edmonton Eskimos at Investors Group Field, with Nichols sidelined for 4-6 weeks due to a knee injury.

“I’m not going to be able to replace what he means to this team as a leader or the player that he is,” Streveler said Tuesday. “He’s been in the league for a really long time and I’m really thankful to have been able to learn from him in the short time I’ve been here. I’m not going to be able to replace that but hopefully I can fill in and do as well as I can and give the team a chance to win.”

The Bombers coaches believe Streveler gives them the best chance to win and picked him ahead of Alex Ross and Bryan Bennett for the start.

One of the men in Streveler’s corner is Buck Pierce, the Bombers current quarterbacks coach, who made his own CFL debut 13 years ago and has some solid advice for the rookie.

“My first ever CFL start was in Winnipeg in 2005,” he said. “We ended up winning the game but I remember making some bad decisions with the football. But learning from those decisions was a big help.

“You trust your preparation. The guy has had a very good camp. Then it’s just understanding that the biggest job of a quarterback is making good decisions with the football.”

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